Leigh

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name of English origin ; a market town in the Greater Manchester area of northwest England
2. A surname borne by people of English descent ; a town in the north-west of England near Manchester
3. A common English family name ; a settlement in Wigan borough, in the northwest of England

Etymology: Before "leigh" became a place-name element in England, it meant a clearing, an open patch of ground within a wood. Its Old English form "lēah" was a word for a meadow or glade, and the same root appears across the Germanic languages: Old Norse "ló" for a clearing, Old High German "lōh" for a covered clearing or thicket, and Old Saxon "lōh" for a grove. The Dutch suffix "-lo," still used in place names, descends from the same stock. The original Proto-Indo-European root, a word for field or meadow, survives in the name of Waterloo, which is Dutch "water" plus "loo," meaning a wood or thicket by the water. That is the most familiar English appearance of the element, though the word itself is now mostly seen as the second half of place names rather than as a standalone noun.